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When we lived in Kunming, my good friend Albert, was studying to pass his drivers test for the first time as a 35 year old. After he had been driving for a few months, I was his white knuckled passenger as he attempted to pull across a busy intersection. Suddenly, I heard him whisper to himself, “Must be brave, Albert.” Everything inside me wanted to protest that bravery is not actually a great driving strategy. Instead, I stayed quiet and watched him pull slowly out into the busy flow without the dreaded result I feared.
Something clicked that day about the differences in our two cultures. It’s something I should have known well from walking across my fair share of busy streets in our little city of 6 million. You see, if you want to get across the street as bikes and cars and scooters whiz on by, you can’t wait for the traffic to stop. Instead, you have to take brave steps out where the openings present themselves. At first it’s quite scary because traffic continues to bend in front of you. But there’s a critical moment when you’re out in the middle that traffic finally begins to curve behind you. Before you know it, you’ve made it across and you’re ready to face the next challenge.
This school year has started off like a big wall of traffic crossing in front of so many people who work in campus ministry. New rules, strict regulations and an ever evolving landscape have created challenges to ministry that seem impassable at times. But my street crossing experiences in China taught me that there are always openings in the traffic and we have to step into them before they disappear.
I would love to share incredible photos from our Fall Welcome Picnic with you, but unfortunately, we had to cancel. Score one point for that big old traffic wall. However, I did end up with a contact list of 25 interested students. So, I emailed them and offered to connect...step one. Then I met 2 students who responded for coffee...step two. Next, I invited them and a third friend to our house to play mahjong and they said yes...step three into the openings. I have no doubt that NMN will one day be an awesome community of Students from China whose lives are transformed as we live and learn and hike together, For now, we are happy to be out in the middle looking for the openings..
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